


bakehyun

by tensbaek



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Bakery AU, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 14:46:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16976553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tensbaek/pseuds/tensbaek
Summary: “it’s just, the name of your store is bakehyun and your name is baekhyun.” he says.





	bakehyun

**Author's Note:**

> okay so i didnt plan on writing this but my friend morgi dmed me at 11pm and said "allie you need to write a fic where baekhyun owns a bakery called bakehyuns okay thats all thank you," and now its 3am. i have work early tomorrow... oh well. i wrote this entirely on my phone hence the lower caps lmao oops, this is not edited and i wrote it at 11pm-3am so i apologise for typos and sentences that dont make sense

when baekhyun hired jongin he was confident the boy would deliver on everything he promised. good food, soft cookies and great customer service. that’s what his resume says, however jongin is none of those things. 

he should’ve realised that one week in to his employment when he managed to fuck up the simplest coffee order; he should’ve realised a month into his employment when someone wished him a happy birthday and he said  _ you too _ and he  _ definitely  _ should’ve realised two months in when he burnt his eighth batch of cookies. 

baekhyun should fire him, he should’ve fired him a long time ago, but he couldn’t bring himself to. jongin is a sweet kid, broke as shit and failing half of his classes but he’s nice, and baekhyun is a sucker for nice. if only his head chef  _ sehun  _ was as nice as him.

but alas, baekhyun cannot fire him. not even now does he consider it, as he stands outside his cafe  _ bakehyun's _ surrounded by his supposed-to-be customers as they watch the fire brigade enter the tiny shop with all sorts of devices. 

“ _ boss,  _ i'm so sorry, i swear i’ll pay for everything.” 

baekhyun waves jongin off flippantly. “don’t make empty promises, if you could afford to pay for everything i would’ve fired you when you spilled coffee all over one of the ladies from the nursing home.”

once baekhyun is allowed back inside the building he sees that not much damage is done, only half the kitchen is covered in soot and fortunately he only lost the oven and a dishwasher. he wasn’t religious but he couldn’t deny that some divine intervention had something to do with it. 

_ divine intervention indeed _ is what he thinks the minute the insurance guy rocks up. 

he’s only slightly shorter than baekhyun, with short neat hair and bulky black glasses. he’s not wearing a suit like his old dusty partner, but rather a nice white dress shirt tucked into  _ very  _ appropriately fitted slacks. 

_ thanks, god.  _

“we just need you to fill out this incident report and we’ll be out of your hair, it doesn’t seem as though you’re committing fraud.” the young man says and baekhyun almost gawks at his voice. it’s soothing, deep, and baekhyun never thought the words  _ incident report  _ and  _ fraud  _ could sound so nice. 

baekhyun messily writes out his name in the assigned boxes and as he does so the young man beside him snickers. baekhyun looks up at him curiously and the man apologises quietly. 

“it’s just, the name of your store is  _ bake _ hyun's and your name is  _ baekhyun _ .” he says. 

baekhyun nods dejectedly and awaits the typical teasing. 

“it’s clever, i like it.” he says instead. baekhyun laughs in disbelieve and thanks him. 

before he knows it the report is signed and they’re on their way, baekhyun watching them leave from the kitchen. he jumps to sit on one of the counters and pulls his phone out immediately, pulling up the group chat he has with his friends. 

**[spare money ma’am]**

_ yeollie: i only need to be told i’m beautiful and loved 1500 times a day i think that’s reasonable  _

_ hun: it’s not ur not valid and i don’t like you _

_ bake: hey _

_ hun: not in the mood today baekhyun  _

_ dae: seriously… read the mood baekhyun  _

_ yeollie: hey baek! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و  _

_ bake: hey chanyeol  _

_ bake: so i met a guy _

_ dae: WELL WHY DIDNT YOU SAY THAT  _

_ hun: not in the mood today baekhyun  _

_ yeollie: bake i thought you were just placing a claim today how did you meet someone? _

_ yeollie: *baek _

_ dae: baekhyun was claiming sumn else  _

**_[dae has left the chat]_ **

_ hun: anyway _

_ bake: thx.  _

_ bake: okay but he’s rlly cute and like small and soft and he got glasses and did i mention small oh and his voice~ _

**_[yeollie has added dae to the chat]_ **

_ dae: hello everyone today i was foolish  _

_ bake: i might have to let jongin burn down the kitchen again  _

_ hun: NKT IN THE MOODTODAY BAEKHYUN  _

_ bake: don’t make me fire you  _

_ yeollie: SDFGHJK _

 

as it turns out baekhyun doesn’t have to let jongin burn the kitchen down again to see the insurance guy, because he turns up three days after the shop is open again, although this time he’s alone. 

baekhyun has banned jongin from anything electric and the kitchen entirely, but that’s mostly for jongins own physical well-being because he heard sehun threatening to set him on fire earlier that morning. jongin being banned from all things mechanic meant that instead of serving people at their table like baekhyun likes to do he’s making coffees instead. 

when the young insurance man walks up to the counter baekhyun smiles and offers a  _ how are you today?  _ and starts preparing the grinder. he expects the man to jump into his order and when he doesn’t baekhyun looks up with a smile to prompt him. it’s only then that he realises who the man is and almost runs the hot water too close to his hand. 

the insurance man is looking above baekhyun at the drinks board and baekhyun can’t look away. the man's eyebrows are furrowed softly and his lips are moving ever so slightly as he reads the drink names to himself. he’s truly beautiful, baekhyun thinks.

the man finally looks at baekhyun and laughs quietly to himself before speaking. his smile is immediately imprinted to the back of baekhyun's eyelids. 

“i’m a little indecisive today,” he says. 

“that’s alright,” baekhyun smiles, wiping excess flour off of his hands that he hadn’t noticed prior to him averting his eyes there when the man looked at him. thanks to jongin being incompetent baekhyun had taken over making the deserts such as cakes and sweets, with the help of sehun, who mainly focused on bread and pastries. he really needed to hire more help. “i can suggest some?”

the man hums with consideration. “sounds good. why don’t you surprise me instead?”

baekhyun nods happily. “okay, what’s your preference? bitter or sweet?”

“sweet.” baekhyun swears he can see a faint blush on the man's cheeks. 

in all honesty, baekhyun pre assumed the man would drink something bitter, something basic, like a short black or something. instead he finds out that he prefers sweet drinks, which excited baekhyun greatly because he loves making those kinds. the smell they leave behind is something that sticks to him like a natural cologne, sehun complains about it but who is he to judge when he smells like fresh bread all the time? 

“what’s your name?” baekhyun asks, as he needs it to place an order. however he can’t deny that his curiosity is peaked. 

“kyungsoo.” the man,  _ kyungsoo _ , says.

“nice name,” baekhyun blurts without thinking, immediately cursing himself for being painfully awkward.

kyungsoo laughs silently and thanks him before walking away to take a seat. baekhyun mutters self loathing curses under his breath as he gets to work on kyungsoo's drink, the drink in which he almost spills when jongin appears beside him with a snicker. 

“ _ nice name _ ,” he mocks. 

baekhyun scoffs shortly and looks at the man with a non threatening glare. “you burnt down my kitchen, you don’t get to tease me for months.”

suddenly the smile drops off jongin's face, he fiddles with his fingers and glances behind him cautiously before looking at baekhyun through his eyelashes. “yeah, about that…”

**_,_ **

 

**[spare money ma’am]**

_ dae: melatonin game strong  _

_ seok: you mean melanin?  _

_ hun: maybe he just had a good nights sleep  _

_ dae: i had a great nights sleep thank you sehun  _

_ hun: welcome  _

_ bake: what do u think about boys who wear glasses  _

_ yeollie: i like that they can see _

_ hun: conversations w u are like teeth… you can only have so many _

_ yeollie: who the fuck are you to limit my teeth  _

_ dae: who invited u here ur always mean to us  _

**[hun left the chat]**

_ minseok: ur so brave…..  _

_ hun but sad: what the fuck did u do that for _

_ bake: CAN YOU ALL FOCUS ON ME FOR ONCE _

_ yeollie: u have new crushes like every week and u expect us to take u seriously  _

_ bake: im in love this time  _

_ dae: that’s gay and also wrong  _

_ bake: no seriously yesterday i was like what’s ur name and he said kyungsoo and i was like uwu _

_ hun but sad: so you all block me but not him? _

**_,_ **

 

kyungsoo starts coming more frequently and never with a consistent order. it’s so frequent and inconsistent that all he has to do is meet baekhyun's eyes when he walks into the bakery and baekhyun will immediately throw together a sweet drink he thinks kyungsoo will like. he doesn’t even come to the counter anymore, he takes a seat and waits for baekhyun to bring it over. 

after receiving praise for his drink he returns back to his station and scowls when he spots sehun grinning at him from the window between the counter and the kitchen. he attempts to ignore him but fails to do so when sehun says, “now  _ that’s  _ a sweet bun,”

“don’t you have a job to do?”

_ baekhyun  _ has too many jobs to do, so much so that he burns himself out, gets sick, can’t afford a day off and faints in the middle of his own bakery. 

when he wakes up sehun and chanyeol are glaring down at him from inside his bedroom and he knows he’s done it now. they force him to close the bakery for a week and get some rest and to hire more people as quickly as possible because not only is he burnt out, sehun and jongin are as well. 

he takes their advice and takes a week off and in that week he decides to hire new people. it’s not the most ethical way, but it’s quick and it works. 

he types up a quick summary of the job description and sticks it on the inside of the shops window. the page states that the shop will be open on the 14th of that month for job interviews, and for anyone who is interested in the job to come with a resume prepared. 

the first hour is uneventful, however he slowly gets more people walking in off the street after glancing at the notice. some of them don’t have resumes, as they weren’t planning on applying for a job on their morning run, so instead he has them bake cookies for him.

most are good, some are terrible, and baekhyun is tired. he’s about ready to pack up and go home when none other than the likes of  _ kyungsoo  _ enter the cafe.

baekhyun looks up when the bell jingles and feels his face grow three degrees warmer. kyungsoo greets him and when baekhyun greets him back he says, “the stores closed for job interviews today."

“i know,” kyungsoo says. “i’m here about the job.”

baekhyuns surprised, visibly so, because kyungsoo laughs softly before taking a seat across from baekhyun. baekhyun is mostly confused, because for about three weeks he was referring to kyungsoo as  _ the insurance man _ . he didn’t dream that, right?

“i know what you’re thinking, and i'm only an intern over summer at my dads company. it’s something to do while i look for a job, and well, i’m looking.” kyungsoo says. 

“oh,” baekhyun chortles. “seems sensible enough. why do you want to work here?”

“i love to cook, specifically deserts, more specially cookies, and not to sound like a little boy but, working in a small independent bakery like this has always been my dream. plus, i heard the staff is really great and accommodating."

“the staff isn’t really that great, the boss gives one of the workers time outs and the other employee likes to do whatever the hell he pleases. between you and me i don’t think the boss really knows what he’s doing.” baekhyun laughs. 

“it seems as though he’s doing a pretty great job to me, i'm always satisfied when i’m here.” kyungsoo answers immediately. 

“alright, alright,” baekhyun sing songs. “compliment me more and you’re in. do you have a resume?”

kyungsoo grimaces. “not on my person, no. i was planning on coming here for lunch, not an interview.”

“well,” baekhyun says and slaps his knee. he stands up and pushes his chair in and when he looks at kyungsoo he almost laughs again. the boy looks quite disappointed, as if he thinks baekhyun was ending the interview here. baekhyun almost wants to play along with that but decides against it. “that’s no problem, i prefer edible resumes anyway.”

“e-edible?” kyungsoo stutters and scrambles to stand as well. 

“edible. follow me to the kitchen.”

he doesn’t even have to tell kyungsoo twice, he immediately jumps into professionalism and makes strict small talk with baekhyun as he prepares the dough. the way kyungsoo handles the ingredients and moulds them into perfect spheres is almost an art form. 

baekhyun sees passions, and art, and love, in the way sehun prepares his food, in the way chanyeol composes his songs, in the way jongdae teaches his students how to sing, in the way minseok paints on a canvas and, oddly enough, the way jongin slides and trips around the bakery. that boy has be a dancer.

he sees it in the things his friends love, and he sees it in kyungsoo. he sees that he loves what he’s doing, that every ingredient is measured and added with a purpose. 

and it all pays off, too. because the cookies are absolutely amazing. they're firm, and yet when he takes a bite it crumbles in his mouth. they’re absolutely mouth watering, and baekhyun eats four of them in one sitting. 

the entire time he’s stuffing his face and moaning and groaning kyungsoo watches him nervously, never touching a piece of a cookie, instead he’s fumbling with the ends of his sweater. he looks nervous, and baekhyun thinks it’s hilarious. he’s literally  _ moaning  _ and his eyes are lost somewhere in the back of his head, kyungsoo  _ has  _ to know he’s in love, and yet he’s still waiting patiently for the verdict. 

“where have you been all my life?” baekhyun looks at the last piece of cookie longingly, and although he’s  _ talking  _ to the cookie, he’s also asking kyungsoo. he slams his fist on the metal industrial bench top once he’s taken his last bite and exclaims, “you’re in!”

kyungsoo’s eyes widen. “seriously?”

“absolutely. although we’ll have to see how you handle jongin.”

**_,_ **

 

for the record, he handles jongin perfectly. he fits in perfectly with the  _ bakehyun's _ staff, as if he was the missing piece of a puzzle.

he gets along with sehun and has somehow reorganised the kitchen well enough as to not cause as many jongin related incidents. jongin has even learned from the man, after closing sometimes baekhyun enters the kitchen to say thank you to his staff and finds kyungsoo helping jongin mix something together in a bowl as sehun sits by idly and watches. 

baekhyun's crush has lasted weeks,  _ months _ , to the point that his friends can’t even really tease him about it anymore because he almost cries every time. 

he’s almost certain that kyungsoo is straight, or at least taken, and he has no proof of this it’s just a feeling. chanyeol says he’s being dramatic and is just seeing what he wants to see but that’s ridiculous because wouldn’t he  _ want  _ to see kyungsoo gay and single? 

on some level his friend is right, though. if he makes kyungsoo unapproachable in his mind then he won’t get his hopes up. is he even allowed to date him now that he’s employing him? he’s not really sure, he skimmed that part of the rule book. 

he’s sad and gay and depressed and he’s damned right allowed to be. this’ll pass eventually, probably. 

it’s a public holiday and baekhyun closes the store. business wise probably not a good idea, but he figured if he and the boys work hard enough in the kitchen all day they wouldn’t have to cook so much during the week, and that’s optimal for all of them. 

kyungsoo isn’t coming until the late afternoon, something about babysitting, and so it’s just baekhyun, jongin, and sehun. he expects it to be messy and chaotic, but what he doesn’t expect is to walk in on his two employees making out in the break room. 

they stare at him, frozen, expecting baekhyun to yell or fire them or  _ something,  _ but all he does is flop down on the couch miserably. jongin and sehun detach their limbs and look at each other in astonishment, and then at baekhyun with confusion.

“i can't believe it’s you two making out in the break room and not me and kyungsoo, i should fire you just for making me sad. and sehun,  _ jongin _ , really?”

jongin pouts and sits back on the couch with a  _ hmph _ sound. 

**_,_ **

 

sehun and jongin leave shortly after kyungsoo turns up, and baekhyun is far too tired to even acknowledge his crush. they work mostly in silence and it’s comfortable. there’s soft jazz playing from the breakroom and both boys are working hard at making a batch of brownies each. 

he doesn’t know how it happens, but suddenly they’re competing. it’s all a blur but baekhyun definitely said “my brownies are better” and that’s probably what started it. 

they both make another batch of brownies, this time purely for competition sake, and when they’re both done they stare at each other in complete silence, daring the other to try a brownie first. baekhyun has kyungsoo's sitting in front of him, and kyungsoo has baekhyuns.

“you first.” baekhyun says. 

“you’re the owner, you should have first taste.”

baekhyun loves food, he loves sweets and he loves coffee. he owns a bakery, for god’s sake. so he caves very easily, shoving kyungsoo's entire brownie into his mouth without another second of hesitation. 

baekhyun is a loud person and can be very gesticulate and when he enjoys something he wants to show it. so forcibly holding back a moan is like internal torture for him, but he does so anyway. the brownie is one of the best he’s ever tried, in terms of tastiness, but he’s confident that his brownie has the best texture. 

the melt-in-your-mouth sensation that brings heaven to earth is what baekhyun's brownie is, and baekhyun knows kyungsoo feels it. he keeps a poker face, but the glimmer in his eyes tell him that he’s impressed the man. he smirks triumphantly. 

“it was alright,” kyungsoo shrugs. 

“that’s ridiculous, they’re to-die-for, just admit it.” baekhyun stomps his foot. 

“no.”

“fine. well, yours isn’t that great either.”

kyungsoo tilts his head in mock confusion, and baekhyun crumbles. just like his brownies. 

“okay, okay. fine. they’re really good. i mean, i didn’t hire you for nothing. you’re a good baker.”

“so are you. i was surprised but i guess i shouldn’t have been, it would be kind of ridiculous if you ran a bakery and didn’t know how to bake.” kyungsoo laughs. 

“it would be quite ridiculous, yeah. you’re really good, though. where did you learn?” baekhyun asks. 

“my mother, she was a fantastic baker. i think i learned more in her kitchen then i did in school.” kyungsoo smiles. “she’d be proud of the work i created today,” he says wittily, glancing down at his brownies in front of baekhyun. 

baekhyun gasps. “i think she would’ve preferred mine.”

“not a chance.”

 

**_,_ **

 

baekhyun and kyungsoo stay overtime a few times after that, and baekhyun starts acting like himself around the man. himself as in loud, annoying, inappropriate and concerningly messy for an owner of a bakery. 

kyungsoo has become comfortable too, comfortable enough to curse at the older man when he sees red sauce all over the backsplash and flour covering every surface. 

he’s muttered “ _ you _ weren’t in the job description like jongin was” a few times but baekhyun pretends he doesn’t hear him. 

baekhyun never hated mondays. he wasn’t the forever 21 type. however  _ this  _ monday in particular can, for lack of better words, choke. 

sehun and jongin are away on some trip for their major, which leaves the bakery understaffed. the entire day is literal hell, baekhyun almost cries when he gets an order wrong and kyungsoo burns himself on the coffee machine twice. 

when the dreaded day comes to end the pair begin to pack up when baekhyun receives a call, a cursed call. a panicked mother explains that her daughters 13th birthday is  _ tomorrow  _ and their caterer fell out and they needed a bunch of assorted cakes and things alike. 

all baekhyun wants is to go home, but he accepts the order because he doesn’t want to let anyone down and he’d hate to think of someone missing out. 

when he tells kyungsoo the boy stares at him blankly and stiffly re-ties the apron strings he’d just loosened back around his middle. he says, “remind me to quit” and then gets on with the work. 

three hours and four  _ no, my cakes are better  _ fights later and the pair lazily clean the kitchen. it honestly looks like a war zone, which is typical for baekhyun but not so much so for kyungsoo. 

in baekhyun's delirious state he declares to have kyungsoo's mother judge their cakes one day, and kyungsoo considers telling the boy that that’s quite impossible, he really does, except there’s a better time and place for that conversation. 

instead, he says, thanks to delirium, “im so tired that you kind of look like a fairy prince from disney right now. stop talking you’re ruining it,” 

baekhyun, to kyungsoo's complete and utter surprise, goes silent. baekhyun has never been this silent ever, and he doesn’t know whether he should count it as a blessing or a curse. 

what he doesn’t know is that baekhyun's mind is quite literally eating itself because kyungsoo kind of called him beautiful (in baekhyun's mind that’s how it happened), but those are minor details. 

half an hour later the kitchen is as spotless as it was when they started. baekhyun moves to grab his bag and,  _ that goddamn divine intervention again,  _ trips over absolutely nothing, sending both him, kyungsoo, and their bags, flying to the floor. 

their faces are close together, i-can-almost-feel-your-lips close together, and baekhyun blushes, and he blushes hard. he knows kyungsoo notices it, and he prays he won’t point it out. if he does, baekhyun will be very mad. 

they chuckle and stumble up clumsily, kyungsoo making some offhand comment about jongin being less dangerous than baekhyun in the kitchen, and all is good again. 

except not exactly. 

when they’ve both slung their bags onto their shoulders and switched off all the lights, baekhyun decides now would be a great time to tell kyungsoo that maybe he was the better cook. 

he says, “hey, you did great work today so i feel like i owe it to you to tell you that your sponge cakes are better than mine. hands down.”

baekhyun tells himself that he’s dreaming, because there’s definitely no way kyungsoo is kissing him. 

the younger man drops his bag to the floor with a hard thud and takes two big steps towards baekhyun, taking his small face in his hands, and kisses him. it’s kind of a disaster, their noses are pushed together and their teeth are colliding but once baekhyun gets over the shock of it all he tilts his head and kisses back and suddenly he’s breaking away, grinning and spluttering, “ _ that’s  _ what it took to get you to kiss me? after all this time?”

kyungsoo laughs breathily and shakes his head, “what time? how long have you had a thing for me exactly?”

“since you laughed at the name of my bakery. remember when i spilled coffee beans everywhere? i only did that for an excuse to talk to you.” baekhyun admits. “i thought you were cute, or whatever.” 

kyungsoo splutters. 

“what made you want to kiss me just then?” baekhyun asks, still in a daze. 

“it was very spur of the moment and impulsive, i usually spend my days wanting to avoid you and i try not to think about kissing you. guess i failed.” 

“guess so,” baekhyun snickers and leans in again. their lips have barely met before they’re interrupted by two loud exclaims of  _ what the fuck _ and when they turn around sehun and jongin are looking at them with wide eyes. 

sehun throws his bag on the couch and crosses his arms. “what, so since you’re the boss you get to makeout with your boyfriend in the lounge but not  _ me? _ ”

  
“do you  _ want  _ me to fire you?” 

**Author's Note:**

> this was my first time writing something like this, so please be nice to me


End file.
